Orleans at crossroads after death of founding member

This year, the soft rock band Orleans has been celebrating its 40th anniversary — a level of longevity that few groups achieve.

The occassion had long-time bassist and co-founder Lance Hoppen starting to ponder his longer term plans.

Sadly, such questions took on a whole new urgency on July 24, when Larry Hoppen – Lance's brother and lead singer/guitarist throughout Orleans' history, passed away suddenly. (The band has declined to discuss the cause of death.)

"I don't know what my life looks like without Orleans," Hoppen says in a phone interview. "But it's a question I had been asking myself this past year anyway because I knew it couldn't continue forever."

In the short term, Hoppen's death forced Orleans, which is best known for the 1970's hits "Still The One" and "Dance With Me," to postpone a run of concerts that were set for July and August, including a July 28 date at Levitt Pavilion SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

But despite the shock and sadness of losing his brother, Hoppen says he quickly went about rescheduling the postponed concerts.

"Within a day or so of the news, I made a decision that we would do these shows," he says. "I told Tom Kallman, who's kind of our acting agent, 'Tom, go save these shows. Do not cancel these shows. Save them. Tell everybody we're going to do them.'"

It has been a trying situation, but the shows were rescheduled, including the Levitt Pavilion concert, which is now set for 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 2.

Hoppen managed to pull together current and past members of the band for the shows, and the Levitt Pavilion concert will actually give fans more than they were going to see in July.

Originally it was going to be an acoustic trio performance with Larry and Lance Hoppen and guitarist Dennis "Fly" Amero. But for the run of rescheduled concerts Hoppen was able to bring back long-time band member, guitarist John Hall; his brother, keyboardist Lane Hoppen (who had been in the group for much of its history); early '80s drummer Charlie Shew (stepping in for regular drummer Charlie Morgan, who was unable to do the rescheduled gigs), as well as Amero.

"I had the idea, well if we had a drum kit, we could do a whole band and do the regular [electric] format," Hoppen says. "So the promoters were kind enough to supply a little extra money and the backline needed. So we'll be coming there essentially as a full five-piece ensemble, which Charlie Shew subbing for Charlie Morgan."

"There are plenty of [other] singers, but there's no Larry," he says "And in 40 years, Larry is the only guy who never missed a gig … He's integral. He's key. We can tell that we can divvy up his workload and do a decent job, but it's still not the same. And I'm just contemplating whether or not it's worth continuing under the circumstances, business wise and musically."

If Orleans ends this year, Hoppen will be able to look back on the group's career knowing the band, thanks to "Dance With Me" and "Still The One," achieved something rare for any group.

"You know, one thing we can say that most bands can't say is that we really embedded ourselves into Americana," Hoppen says, not intending his comment to sound at all boastful. "We've become, by virtue of those two songs, we're part of the collective consciousness. That's something."

But Hoppen and Hall, in particular, realize that Orleans could have had a much bigger impact and success — and possibly become one of the true iconic bands of the early and mid-1970s.

That's because just after "Dance With Me" and "Still The One" had become career-making hits, Orleans got sidetracked by internal issues. That, along with some bad luck with record deals, prevented the group from capitalizing on the success of its back-to-back hits.

That run of success began in 1975. At that point, Orleans had suffered a setback, being dropped by ABC Records after the label decided it didn't hear any hits on the group's second album and shelved that record, "Orleans II."

The band, which at the time included Larry and Lance Hoppen, Hall and drummer Wells Kelly, set about shopping for a new record deal, while playing gigs. One such engagement was a week of shows at Max's Kansas City in the Greenwich Village section of New York City.

One person who came to see the band was Chuck Plotkin, a top A&R representative for Asylum Records and a producer who later would go on to work on some of Bruce Springsteen's biggest albums.

Plotkin liked what he heard, in particular "Dance With Me," which was on the unreleased second album. He signed the band to Asylum and took Orleans into the studio to record its third album, "Let There Be Music."